Rejected Exodus!
by Lunar Cresta
Summary: A survey party tries to survive and get back to Eagle 1.
1. Chapter 1

* * *

Koenig regained consciousness as Helena was pulling him along the jungle floor. She kept herself pressed close to the ground, even as she dragged him along on his back. It was a hard struggle, but Helena soldiered on. She was going to get him to safety.

John raised his head up to see the direction from which he was being rescued. In the hazy of semi-awareness he noticed the blood and damage done to his leg.

"My leg!" he yelled abruptly.

"Oh, shit!" exclaimed Helena. She had not seen John regain consciousness. With that shout she knew it would draw more of the alien creatures (alien to them. Not alien to the planet they were on) in their direction. These creatures had primitive weapons and were definitely pissed off for some reason. This was a bad combination.

The flash and bang of a rudimentary firearm made both of them fairly jump. It surprised Helena that a creature could have been so close. She reached down to her thigh and drew a ray gun from its holster. She fired a crackling high energy shot that exploded as it impacted on something…a tree or alien maybe…she couldn't see. She reholstered her weapon.

"Your leg is fine," she whispered to a wild-eyed John. She wrapped an arm around him to comfort him. "I patched you up. We gotta get out of here."

She resumed dragging him as rapidly as she could along the jungle floor. John helped by thrusting vigorously with his good leg.

As they neared the clearing where Eagle One rested the firing of aliens and Alphans grew louder. Helena reached to her hip for her commlock. She brought it up to her face and clicked the multicast button.

"This is Helena. I've got John. We are at the edge of the forest."

The smallish semi-asian face of Sandra appeared in Helena's commlock screen.

"I see you, Helena. Be careful coming in. They are putting out a lot of shots from your side! Have you seen Paul?"

"Yes," Helena replied. "He is coming from a different direction to draw them off of us. I am going to have to carry John."

"Come quick!" advised Sandra. "I will cover you."

Helena put John's arm around her shoulder and together they propelled themselves into the clearing and the bright sun. They stumbled and ran toward the white form of the Eagle spacecraft that was partially obscured by the high green grass. Sandra lay prone just outside the doors of the eagle firing wishful shots in all directions in the hopes of keeping the creatures' from shooting back at Helena and John.

Helena stumbled halfway back to the ship and unfortunately dropped John and herself to the ground. They lay low for a second as single shots from projectile weapons exploded past them.

"Come on! Come on!" Sandra shouted excitedly. She waved her arm at Helena in a beckoning gesture as she continued to fire in the directions of the incoming shots. Helena was thoroughly exhausted, and just tried to cover up John. Just then a voice rang out through her commlock.

"Doctor? Doctor Russell!" Helena brought the communication device to her face again and this time in the screen appeared the dark africanic face of Kano. "I am on the other side. I am coming to help you. "

Helena looked to the other side of the Eagle. She did not see Kano but she could make out the prone form of Assistant Mission Controller Tanya Alexandra pressed close to the ground. She was shooting out suppressive laser fire into the other end of the forest.

"Come on in, David!" Tanya shouted hurriedly. So, just then, Kano's form came busting out of the jungle path at full speed. He had just reached Tanya's side of the eagle when a shot rang out unexpectedly from the side. Bright red blood shot out from Kano's side as he fell right next to Tanya.

"David!" Tanya screamed in shock and frustration.

Helena had watched Kano from the other side of the craft. Even from there she could see the arterial bleeding spurting from the side of his chest.

"Crap!" she muttered. That was all they needed just now… another Alphan down.


	2. Chapter 2

Kano clutched at his side as he contorted on the ground.

"Argh!" he grunted out in agony. He looked down at the rapidly expanding pool of blood coming from his chest and then winced. "I'm hit! I'm bleeding out! This is it!"

"No no no!" Tanya countered. She pressed her own hand over the entry site to staunch the bleeding. In her heavily accented Russian she commanded to him, "You WILL be alright! Do you hear me, Davida?" Two bangs sounded from the tree line and two small tufts of grass near Tanya and Kano rippled from the impacts. Tanya replaced her right hand with her left over the wound site and picked up her ray gun again. She covered Kano's body with her own as she aimed and fired two shots in the directions from which the projectiles had come from.

"Doctor Russell!" Tanya beckoned to Helena, but the chief medical officer of Moon Base Alpha was already on her way.

With renewed strength Helena got John back up, and together they hobbled to the doorway of the ship. Sandra covered their approach. When Helena keyed the door with her commlock Koenig gestured for her to set him down.

"No," he declared resignedly. "I'll stay out here and cover this side. Go help Kano!"

Helena put him down as gently as she could with glad admiration towards him that even in his state he recognized that Kano was worse off then he was. John put out his hand. "Give me your weapon. I dropped mine…out there." He gestured in the direction where he had left Paul Morrow and Chief Astronaut Alan Carter fighting the aliens.

Helena darted inside the eagle after handing off her ray gun. She scooped up her medical bag in a swift motion. From the speaker on her commlock she could hear Tanya beckoning her again in an loud and urgent but not panicky voice.

"Come quickly, Doctor! David is hurt bad!"

'Yeah, I know, Tanya,' Helena thought to herself. 'I could see the fountain of blood from the other side of the ship.'

Before exiting out the door again, Helena paused before the weapons rack. She picked up the sole laser rifle that was hung there and jetted out the door. She ducked under the command module section of the eagle and ran over to Kano and Tanya. Sandra was shouting out, "Paul!? Paul!?" as she covered the right side of the craft with Commander Koenig.

"Here!" Helena tossed the laser rifle to Tanya as she knelt down to tend to the writhing Kano.

"Yes. Oh, thank you!" Tanya received the larger weapon gratefully. She lifted herself off of Kano to give Dr. Russell access to him. Much of his blood was upon her shirt oddly matching the color of her red Mission Control sleeve. The spurting blood immediately resumed.

"Augh!" Kano screamed. He wisely clutched his own arm to the wound site. "It hurts so bad." Seeing that the medically white sleeved Doctor Russell was now by his side he managed to ask in an agonized but doubtful plea, "Can you stop it?"

"Yes," Helena responded. She was already donning electro-radiation goggles to examine through his flesh. "But I can't administer any pain shunts until I get that projectile out. Move your arm!"

Kano moved his arm in compliance with a loud moan. The blood was fairly overwhelming but Helena could see through it with the trauma goggles that gave her x-ray penetration of his chest. She administered a hypo spray of anesthetic to the whole area. It wouldn't do much for the comparatively large amount of pain Kano was receiving but it might stop him writhing a little bit.

Just then the side of the Eagle showered with a burst of sparks as a projectile fired from the forest ricocheted off of it. Helena was about to ask Tanya to do something about that when she saw that Tanya was already in response mode.

The insect like creatures were pretty well camouflaged with their natural coloration so they were difficult to make out in the midst of the jungle foliage. Tanya had been waiting with the laser rifle braced against her knee for a clear shot. She now made out the flash from an enemy creature's weapon. She re-aimed the crosshairs over to follow the length of the barrel back to the creature that had just fired on them. The greenish, almost spider-like body could just barely be made out as it made complicated movements to manually reload its primitive firearm.

Tanya hissed-out as she squeezed the trigger. "Oh. Now I see you...you mother-vlasovech!"


	3. Chapter 3

With a loud crackle a long red energy beam emitted itself from the barrel of the laser rifle and exploded upon impact against its intended target. The creature and several yards of jungle plant life disintegrated in that instant. All firing from that area of forest paused.

"Tanya?" Sandra's voice emanated from the commlock system. "Kano? Dr. Russell? Are you okay? What was that?"

Tanya touched the transmit button not bothering to bring the commlock device to her face as she tried to maintain an eye on the jungle.

"That was me, Sandra," Tanya explained. "I just putting the laser rifle on them."

"You know…we could use some of that over here," advised Sandra.

"I know-I know. Can you hang on for a sec?" Tanya had no intention of diminishing her coverage of Dr. Russell and Kano when he was in this state.

Sandra didn't answer immediately. She took a shot at a flash from the tree line and then put the commlock to her face again. She set it for full spectrum broadcast.

"Paul! Come in Paul! I know you are out there!" She then set it for narrow multicast again as the commlocks used up too much power when transmitting at full blast. She pushed the button again. "Come in Paul…or Alan! Oh please. Come in!"

On the other side of the ship Doctor Russell was about to operate.

"I see it, Kano," she declared with great relief. "Don't move"

Tanya clutched Kano's hand with as much strength as she could as if to distract him from the pain.

"Hold still, Davidka," she said in an affectionate Russianization of his name. "I think she is about to pull it out."

"That's right," Helena acknowledged while trying to maintain her normal calm dulcet tone as close as possible while still sounding urgent. "I can see it now. It's…it's long and dart like. It's nicked your aorta. It's coming out now."

With the x-ray light spectacles giving her an excellent view of the offending object, she could manipulate it with a magnetic probe. She dexterously pulled out the long and narrow dart bullet and plopped it to the ground. Helena quickly then inserted a trauma pain shunt into the hole. Kano shuddered a little and then subsided in his writhing.

"Is that working?" Helena didn't wait for response. She dug into her bag and found a new head for her probe and stuck it on. "Hold still. I'm going to stitch that vessel quick."

She drove the probe back in and made the necessary maneuvers. The spurting blood stopped immediately. Helena pulled the probe back and slapped an occlusive bandage over the wound site.

"Hold that there for a sec," she told Kano. She put all her instruments in the bag and got ready to stand up.

"Alright! Let's move!" Helena commanded when she was ready. She grabbed up her bag and put one of Kano's arms around her neck. Tanya took the other arm. The bandage had already sealed as it was designed to. Tanya fired two more laser rifle shots to the right and left to keep the enemy creatures' heads down. The jungle shook with the explosions.

When they had just gotten around the nose of the eagle they heard a fervent broadcast coming from the commlocks.

"Eagle One! Eagle One! This is Paul! I'm coming in! Don't shoot me! I'm coming in!"

It was good that he made that request as Sandra and Koenig were lighting up anything that fairly moved on that side of the ship not even waiting for a weapons blast most times.

Sure enough Paul emerged from the edge of the forest riding up on a yellow reconnaissance moon buggy. He paused a the tree line to make sure he was seen and not shot at.

"Yes! Paul! Come in! Come on!" Sandra screamed as she jumped; waving him on.

But Paul didn't come immediately. He put the commlock to his face and asked, "Where's Alan? Is he there?"

"No!" virtually everybody yelled back. No one at the eagle had seen Alan since the creatures had attacked.

"Damn!" cursed Paul. He began to maneuver the buggy around to go back into the forest.

"I think I know where he is! Paul shouted at the top of his lungs."

"No no no!" screamed Sandra incredulously back at him.

Those denials suddenly turned into "no's" of horror as she suddenly observed a creature detaching itself from a tree. Everyone could only watch in terror as the horrible multi-legged creature leapt from the tree trunk right on top of an unsuspecting Paul Morrow.

"Auughhhh!!!" Paul screamed as the huge spider-like creature wrapped all of it's many legs around him.

"NOOOOO!" screamed Sandra as she half-insensibly tore off in his direction.


	4. Chapter 4

The green and brown monster wrapped itself around Paul like an ugly nightmare. Caught totally by surprise Paul fought for his life in the multi-legged embrace. He could only vainly struggle as the creature applied pressure to break him apart.

"Auughhh my chest!" Paul screamed as four of the creatures legs clenched into his thorax and tried to twist him open.

"I'm coming!"Sandra yelled. The petite yellow-sleeved woman had covered the distance from the eagle with world record pace. With little thought of what she would do once she got to Paul and no though of her own safety she lept on to the back of the giant arachnidic creature.

"Aieeeee!"Sandra screamed as she rode on the hard chitinous shell of the murderous beast. The creature spun around in surpise trying to shake the petite alphan from it back. Through the haze of her crazed desperation Sadra could make out the creature's multiple sets of eyes that sat unlidded and vulnerable at the top its shell. With a maniacal flurry of motion Sandra began to pummel each individual eye with the fist of one hand and the butt of the ray gun in her other hand.

"Let him go! Let him go!" Sandra commanded as she pounded out each syllable into the creature's eyes.

"Roooooaaahhhhr!!!"the creature growled in agony. It released Paul while it still had an undamaged eye left, but in a miracle of dexterity it reversed it's many legs so that now it was crushing Sandra against its back. The severely wounded creature threated to kill her in an instant of of blind and pained reflex.

"Eeeeeeee!!!!" Sandra's shriek emanated from the all encompassing embrace of the creature. Paul having been spun around and then released took a second in dizziness on the ground to realize that somewhere in that distorted mass of monster limbs was Sandra who was now in the position he had just formerly been in...except now in reverse. Launching himself into a flying kick, Paul thrust his foot into the soft high abdomen of the creature which unfortunately was where it's mouth was located. His foot moon booted foot sunk into the creature's round gaping maw with a sickening 'splurtch', breaking several of the creature's vestigal teeth in the process.

"Oh...God!" exclaimed Paul as he hung from the creature's mouth by one leg. It was unquestionably the sickest thing that he would ever experience in his whole cosmic life.

Paul tugged at his leg with both hands. The creature released Saudra. The creature obliged Paul's pulling by promptly vomiting out Paul's foot as well as the rest of contents of its stomach. The partially blinded alien behemoth half gallopped half staggered back into the forest, no doubt the worse for wear. Paul collapsed on his knees to the ground and clutched his bleeding head.

Having been thrown free from the alien's grip Sandra sat up from the ground and fired repetitive yellow-laser shots into the dark forest in the direction of the rapidly retreating beast.

"Yeah, you better run, you…BASTARD! Ahhhhhh!!!" she yelled, now in a state of pure mania. She noticed the goop dripping from the butt of her ray gun and was coating her other hand. It was the bio-remnance of the alien creatures smashed-in eyes. "Oh my God that's disgusting," Sandra complained with a half a sob and half a chuckle. She gave an involuntary shudder. She looked over to Paul who was trying to catch his breath and looking quizzically in all directions at the same time

"Come on!" Sandra coaxed agitatedly as she pushed him toward the moon buggy. After he fell into drivers seat Paul examined the bloody fluid that he had wiped from his head.

"Sahn," he grunted. "That thing bit me. Look! Ow..my head! Do you see fang marks?"

"What?" Sandra jumped into the back of the buggy and examined the back of Paul's slightly head covered in slightly blood matted hair. "Oh you're bleeding!"

"I know. But is it fang marks or a bite?" Paul asked confusedly.

"I don't know!" Sandra yelled in absolute frustration. "What's the difference!?!? You've got holes in your head! You're BLEEDING!"

"No, no,!" Paul protested. "Is there like two puncture marks close to one another?!?"

Sandra tried to examine Paul's skull by gently palpating the site of the bleeding but gave up when he flinched at the pain of her touch.

"Christ, Paul!" Sandra shouted while shaking him by the shoulders. "I don't know! Isn't this a question for Doctor Russell?! Can't we get the hell out of here?!?!"

Actually, that made sense to Paul at that point. Helena could figure it out. He gunned the electric motor of the buggy, turned the wheel sharply, and promptly slammed into the side of a tree. Saundra was propelled into the side seat and found herself looking up at the mustachioed Main Controller who was squinting badly.

"Are you okay?" she asked concernedly.

"Sorry about that!" Paul replied, not really answering the question. "Hang on!"

And hang on she did. While seated in the small cargo bed with her back against Paul's she clutched onto the side of the buggy while trading shooting at everything shooting at their careening vehicle.

"Sandra?" Paul asked plaintively.

"What?" Sandra replied. She couldn't believe Paul wanted to have a conversation at this point.

"Which way is the Eagle!?"

"What?" Sandra repeated incredulously. She knew Paul should be able to see the craft. Even though some of it's fuselage was partially obstructed by some high grass, the entire top was clearly visible.

"It's the big white thing in the middle of the field!"she instructed. Sandra turned around briefly to point Paul in the right direction. "Twenty degrees more to the right!" She turned back to resume zapping the creatures firing at them from the woods. "I knew I should've drove."

"I'm good! I see it," Paul declared, but "see" had to be qualified as "seeing" a big white blurry blob suspended in a big blurry sea of green. If there was any doubt in Paul's mind about being invenomated he no longer needed Doctor Russell's confirmation.

At the last second Sandra looked back to the front to see them careening into the Eagle.

"Oh my God!" she screamed as she curled up into a small impact resistant ball.


	5. Chapter 5

When Sandra ran off to help Paul the rest of the Eagle One landing party-minus Alan- looked on in horror and amazement.

"Sandra!!!" everyone called after, but she was clearly beyond hearing them. No one could imagine what, if any, good the petite woman could have against such a large creature that had all but already engulfed Paul in its eight or more arms. Koenig, on the ground fired many shots into the woods to cover Sandra's charge into the tree line.

Meanwhile, Doctor Russell and Tanya quickly helped Kano into the eagle. They dumped him with care into one of the seats of the passenger module. Tanya wrapped the seat restraining belt around him. She looked into his eyes in order to see if he was okay. Kano gave a thumbs-up and a weak apologetic smile as if to say, 'sorry for being such a burden,' for he surely hadn't intended to wind up being the rescuee when he had initially tried to play the rescuer for Doctor Russell and Commander Koenig.

"Are you okay?" she asked with a reassuring smile. She tightened his waist belt. "I'm starting this bird up".

"What about Alan?" Kano protested.

"Achhh, that crazy Australian. He had better get back…and fast!" Tanya stood up, waved good-bye and then disappeared around the corner, headed toward the command module. She jumped into the left seat of the cockpit and yelled, "Main Motors!" to the flight computer as she wrapped the yellow seat harnesses around herself. The computer complied by initiating an engine start up sequence and displaying a checklist of items on the cockpit monitors. Tanya flicked several switches corresponding to tasks on the list.

Helena, for her part had exited the eagle hatchway again to go after Sandra and help Paul. She hadn't made it two steps out the door when she was felled by a shot from the creatures firing from the woods. She fell backwards from the impact and hit her head on the side of the ship. The rotational acceleration of her brain inside her skull caused her to pass-out briefly, but that was the typical cause of unconsciousness after strong head impacts. She was soon awake but dazed. She clutched at her abdomen.

"Ooooooooo," Helena winced at the pain. She threw off her half exploded medical kit bag. She rolled around for a second afraid of how bad it was. Like most doctors she was going to be her own worst patient.

"Ow Ow Ow," she cried, but finally stopped squirming on the ground to examine the wound to her hip. She looked at the blood on her hand and then at her side. It was only a small amount of blood. She lifted up her tunic and slid down her pants enough to expose the wound site. Yep, sure enough just a small puncture hole was oozing a little blood from the fleshy part just below her waist.

Helena picked and examined the medical bag. One side had a large hole and lots of charring. The enemy projectile had clearly impacted and destroyed the powerful electronics of the x-ray examining goggles. She turned around and examined the other side of the light gray bag, and there sticking just outside of the material was sharp dart like front end of another one of the alien projectiles.

'That was now thrice this medical kit had saved someone's life today', Helena marveled to herself. She held up the bag to show John who hadn't even seen her get hit. He was so busy covering Sandra and Paul and the whole Eagle by himself…but now he was seeing something else

"What the hell is he doing?" John asked. He and Helena watched as the yellow reconnaissance moon buggy driven by Paul zigged and zagged every which way across the field except in their direction.

"He must be hurt," Helena correctly diagnosed. She pointed her commlock at the rear hatchway of the Eagle and opened it up. A small ramp for the buggy slid down automatically.

"This way, Paul!" Helena and John yelled waving their arms simultaneously.

As if hearing or seeing them for the first time Paul directed the buggy toward the Eagle straight on. Helena barely had time to dive out of the way and John just enough time to roll under the Eagle before Paul flattened both of them. Helena watched as the small buggy carrying Paul and Sandra hit the ramp at top speed.

"Look out!!!"


	6. Chapter 6

Okay, where were we...

* * *

The yellow moon buggy hit Eagle One's aft ramp with a solid WHAM at full speed. The impact propelled it and its occupants ungracefully into the rear cargo hold.

"What was that?" Tanya yelled from the cockpit.

Kano screwed his head around to see the former occupants of the buggy now deposited on the Eagle's floor.

"Paul and Sandra are back!" he announced while unstrapping himself to go and help them out.

"Thank God!" Tanya said with sincere gratitude. Then taking into account the magnitude of the sound of their arrival she asked, "Are they alright?"

"I don't know!" Kano said while kneeling down to assist small data analyst Sandra in getting up. "Well, Sandra's okay!"

"Thanks," Sandra said after Kano lifted her off of the cabin floor. "Paul?"

Kano and Sandra tugged at Paul by his arms, but he was only nominally conscious and barely able to keep his head up.

"Paul looks bad!" Kano yelled toward the cockpit. "Where's Doctor Russ-?"

Just then Helena vaulted up the Eagle's steps…out of the hail of projectile darts being fired by the aliens outside.

"There's so more of them shooting at us now out there!" she informed everyone breathlessly. "Is everyone okay?"

Without waiting for more information she immediately tended to Paul and lay him down in one of the compartment seats. She examined his eyes, and noted his pupils were highly dilated and rolling upwards. She touched the bloody oozing top of his head.

"Did that thing bite you?" she asked.

"Yannannh myynhh ummp fehhh dah?" Paul replied incoherently.

"Okay," she patted him comfortingly. "I'm thinking it injected you with something like a neuro-specific bio-toxin. Hopefully some anti-venom and haemo-philitic narcan will dilute the poison out of your system. You don't have any known allergy to either of those do you?"

"Naa-ahnthum..." Paul drooled and slurred-out woozily.

"I'm going to take that as a no," Helena said quickly as she set about filling her hypos.

Sandra watched on with worried relief that Paul was being looked after. She was roused by the sound of Commander Koenig's voice emanating from the commlocks.

"I could use some help out here!" John yelled. "Someone get out here and cover the other side of the ship!"

"I'm coming!" Sandra responded.

Just then, the Eagle's engines revved into a high-pitch whine, signaling that they were hot and ready for launch.

"We've got main motors!" Tanya shouted from the command module. "Lift-off ready in 15 seconds!"

"We gotta get Alan!" Koening announced urgently. "Alan! Come in, Carter!"

And over the zaps of his laser fire and the bangs of the primitive alien guns finally came the the relatively cool Aussie voice of Alpha's Chief Astronaut...

"Hello, Eagle One! Boy, am I glad to hear you all start up, but you guys weren't planning to leave without me were you?"

Back at the Eagle everybody breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get back here NOW!" Koening yelled while firing off a few remaining shots of his depleting ray gun.


	7. Chapter 7

In the forest deep, Alan Carter was in a precarious situation. With a ray gun in each hand he fired in two directions at once simultaneously, but he was effectively surrounded.

"Yeah, I would like to come back…a whole lot" he responded to Commander Koenig's order to return through the open mike of his commlock. "But our friends here have me blocked! I'm cut off! Any chance of you coming to me?"

Alan fired desperately in all directions. He was in serious need of a rescue.

"Half of us are wounded and we don't know where you are!" John let Alan know. "Hey! Fire up into the air."

"Okay," Alan consented. "Here it comes!"

From deep within the forest a single yellow streak of light forced it's way out of the jungle canopy taking several birds and leaves with it.

"Okay! We got you!" Koening announced excitedly. "Tanya?" Koening called to the Russian born Controller who normally assisted Paul and whose Eagle flying skills he had never called upon before, much less thought about. "Did you see that? Let's get to him!"

"Yes, but how? The jungle is thick!" Tanya complained.

"Hold on!" responded Sandra, fresh with an idea in her mind. She ran into the connection-way between the command module and the passenger section. There on the connection-way wall just behind the cockpit she examined through the inventory of supplies hanging there. Rescue axe...rock prying pike...and there!...a large coil of fiber utility rope. Hopefully, it would be long enough.

Sandra stuck her head into the flight deck and showed Tanya her find.

"We can use this!" she informed her. "I'll tie it inside and we'll drop it down to him and pull him out!" Sandra disappeared back into the main cabin to set her plan in action.

"Okay," Tanya nodded. "Alan, we are coming to get you! Do you think you can climb a rope up to the ship?"

"What? Like Tarzan?." A shot closely fired shot from an alien exploded past Alan's head. "Okay! Bring it! Better that way…than not at all!"

Meanwhile, back in the passenger module Sandra tied one end of the rope to a cross spar on the ceiling of the Eagle with a complicated but solid knot.

"Ha! Andhra Pradesh Girl Scouts finally come in handy!" she stated triumphantly. She commanded the side door open and entered a code into her commlock to keep it that way just as Doctor Russell and Kano were helping in the commander. They heard the sound of the Eagles engines whining down.

"What's going on, Tanya?" Koenig demanded to know through gritted teeth. "We've got to go now! Why are you shutting down?"

"The Eagle is aborting lift-off automatically with the doors jammed open!" Tanya explained. "It won't allow us to launch like this. Kano! Come up here and talk to the computer!"

With a grunted curse Kano handed off his side of the commander to tiny Sandra who helped Helena set him down and strap him in. Kano ran up into the command module and set himself down painfully into the right seat. He began typing rapidly at several unmarked keypad buttons in the co-pilot's auxiliary console. He finally resorted to voice control.

"Flight computer," he said in the tone he usually used to engage with Computer back on Moon Base Alpha. "Override lift-off criteria, now please. Re-establish flight enablement."

A computerized voice programmed similarly to Alpha's main computer responded matter-of-factly:

"Unable to comply. Space frame hull integrity is essential for passenger crew survival. Minimal integrity has not been attained. Additional: Structural damage from unknown exterior force-"

"Flight computer," Kano interrupted while maintaining his usual level tone even though his native Jamaican accent was now becoming slightly evident with his increased concern. "Please apply emergency override to launch sequence….through this authorization: 'Programmer-Kano-Lunar-ID-101443'".

With that the engines began their familiar high pitched whine back into life.

"I don't believe it!" Tanya said incredulously. "Good work!"

"Believe it," Kano confirmed more calmly. "Let's get out of here." he pointed his fingers rapidly like pistols then wrapped the seat harnesses around himself.

"Okay...we're going!" Tanya announced to passenger section's occupants. "Ready?!"

"Ready!" shouted Sandra kneeling beside the open door, and exchanging shots with the aliens outside.

"Yes! Let's go!" Helena urged. She held down her two patients, John and Paul, even though they were securely belted down and not going anywhere.


	8. Chapter 8

Tanya wrapped her hands around the control sticks and pulled them up evenly. The Eagle gave a large burst from its bottom retros that blasted dirt in every direction as it lifted-off vertically. Tanya adjusted the throttle quadrant to compensate for the damage done to the maneuvering rockets by alien projectiles. The Eagle's nose swung around in to the direction where Alan was hopefully still holding off a contingent of alien aggressors.

"Alan!" Sandra shouted into her commlock over the noise of the engines and wind rushing past the open door. Her short black hair fluttered wildly in her face. "Fire another shot up!"

A new yellow ray beam of energy blazed out of the jungle undergrowth just as the Eagle was approaching the very location. Tanya brought the Eagle's nose up to slow it down and then coasted toward the approximate spot where the shot had emanated from. Now just skimming at tree top level they were still more than hundreds of feet above the ground.

From her position looking down over the ledge of the Eagle's floor Sandra guided the Eagle to the right spot. She could make out make out the flashes of light coming from Alan's gun lighting up the jungle darkness.

"I see him! I see him!" Sandra shouted. "More forward! More left...More left! Okay, hold that!"

With the Eagle hovering far above him and blasting the trees tops into swaying violently, Alan waved an arm wildly. Sandra kicked the length of rope out the door, and the end of it fell right next to Alan.

"Get on!" she said uselessly as her voice was easily drowned out by the exterior engine noise.

Alan needed no encouragement anyhow. He leapt upon the rope and was shimmying up it as best he could. He put one ray gun into his belt holster and gave a vigorous thumbs-up signal. He then regrasped the rope with that hand and fired down around himself into the jungle desperately with the other laser grasping hand then holstered that one too. The aliens were not going to let him go so easily. They now fired more shots at the human and some dared to creep closer despite the fury of the rocket thrust blasting down into the jungle.

"Okay Tanya! You can pull up now!" Sandra indicated as she initiated shooting a ring of laser fire around Alan's clambering form.

Tanya eased the control sticks up gently again and the Eagle made a gradual straight-up ascent, but the dangling rope began to smoke from the heat of the exhaust.

"Easy Tanya!" Sandra advised. "The thrusters are burning the rope."

Helena came to the doorway and started pulling on the rope with Sandra as the Eagle once again assumed station-keeping hovering. Together they could barely move it. Commander Koenig unstrapped himself and came over to start pulling too.

"John!" Helena protested but John ignored her as he braced his one good leg upon the floor and tugged with the women. It was hard going.

Sandra poked her head out over the side of the ship to see Alan courageously still trying to shimmy his way up the rope but he still had a way to go. Then a shot from an alien weapon narrowly zinged past Sandra's head and ricocheted through-out cabin of the passenger module setting off several sparks. When the ricocheting stopped Sandra lifter her head off the floor and stuck it out the doorway again.

"Tanya! You've got him above the tree tops! Can you go forward gently? They are still shooting at us...and him."

"Okay!" Tanya acknowledged. She held a control stick steady in one hand while pushing the throttle handle at her side forward. While keeping the Eagle at the same relatively low altitude she gradually nosed it around back toward the clearing they had come from.

Sandra monitored Alan's climbing as the spray of darts from the jungle thinned out as they travelled away from the shooting aliens. Sandra became instantly alarmed as they came over the clearing again.

"Alan!" she shouted in obvious surprise pointing downward.

"What?" a nearly out of breath Alan managed to gasp out over the roar of the retros while still several feet below her.

"Look!" she screamed. "No! Climb! Keep coming! Fast!"

But Alan had to look. Clasping the rope for dear life he looked down to see at least three of the bug eyed multi-armed alien creatures grasping the same rope with him…not far enough below.

"Oh, screw me!" Alan exclaimed.


	9. Chapter 9

Eagle one, piloted by Second Controller Tanya Aleksandr and assisted by Chief Computer Expert David Kano, slowed as it came over the grassy clearing it had originally landed on when coming to the jungle strewn planet. The craft started to come in lower as it neared the center of the field so as to let Alphan Chief Astronaut Alan Carter into the ship as he was currently clinging to a rope beneath the Eagle. However, neither Tanya nor Kano was aware that not only was Alan suspended from the rope but also four of the arthropodic creatures that had been fighting them since they had landed on this verdant world.

"Don't land!" Helena yelled from the passenger module. "There are three or four of those things on the rope behind Alan. They'll get him if you go down."

"Great!" shouted back Kano in frustration at the situation. "…they are still shooting at us!"

"We'll keep moving forward until no one is shooting," Tanya advised Kano, and she gently continued to nudge the eagle forward over another part of the jungle that covered the planet.

"I'm thinking we will get out of range faster of their weapons if we gain altitude," Kano calculated. "Hopefully they can pull him up back there."

"Okay," replied Tanya succinctly as she pulled up gently on the control sticks, then added: "Please, can you adjust thruster outputs? It is difficult with damage."

"Will do," said Kano.

As Eagle One vertically ascended once more, the occupants of the passenger section tried their best to get their last team member safe and on-board.

"Come on!" coaxed Helena stretching out her hand to Alan who was just a little bit more than out-of-reach.

"Arghhh!," Alan grunted out. He was too tenacious to quit, but being doggedly chased through a jungle, and having climbed the rope as far as he had, had put him on the edge of exhaustion. Now, with the added G-force of the climbing Eagle, not to mention the wind and down thrust upon him, it was too much to pull against and make rapid progress.

"Sandra!" Helena yelled out over the ambient noise. "Can you shoot them off? Then we can pull him up?"

Sandra reached behind herself to the bulkhead wall where the weapons rack was. She picked out a fresh hand laser then bracing her shoulder against the open door frame. With a two handed grasp she fired off a carefully aimed shot set at the closest alien.

For the first time Sandra got to see the effect the ray gun had on an alien. The energy beam zig-zagged through the entire hard shelled body of the alien, and seemed to cook it from inside, even though the weapon was set only on "stun". It gave of an eerie un-earthly scream and fell off the rope instantly, bumping into the second alien just below it and taking both of them to the surface of the planet.

"Wow!" commented Sandra. She hadn't been expecting so much success from her shooting as well as the power of her weapon. She took careful aim again. There was the loud electric zap of the plasma energy beam and the resultant sizzle of the impact on its alien target.

The third creature spasmed, and fell off from the rope promptly. The fourth creature having witnessed the demise of the first two of its comrades had made itself as small as possible, and although impacted by the falling body of the alien of above it managed to cling onto the rope with all of its legs.

"Yes!" Sandra cheered herself and her sharp shooting. "Three down and one to g-"

But this last alien was not going so easily back down to its planet. Far above any height than it had experienced in its arachnoid life the creature realized that it was either a very long drop for it or being zapped by shot from Sandra's laser. Choosing a third option it decided to climb. And climb it did at a rate way beyond what Alan or any other human could have managed. Like a spider up a line of its own web it ascended rapidly up the rope…towards the still hanging-there Alan Carter.

"Oh, snap!" cried Sandra. She fired, but missed. She fired again, but to no avail. She was now roundly missing the alien with every shot as it was moving frenetically up the many meters of rope.

"Alan!," she shouted urgently. "Climb! Climb!"

Alan, having felt and then seen the horrid multi-limbed creature rapidly ascending toward him had been granted an extra boost of adrenaline to his body. He struggled out against the fatigue of his muscles and pulled the last feet of extended rope length to just below the Eagle's undersection. He reached out a hand to Helena who was laying on the floor with her arm outstretched downward. With a last extensive effort from both parties, Helena made contact with Alan's finger tips then with John holding onto her legs she made a firm grasp of his hand and began to pull.

But it was too late. The desperate alien had reached as far up the rope as it could get, and with Alan the only thing between itself and extermination it penetrated his leg with one of its leading pincer-like appendages. Alan yelped in agony and surprise.

"Aieeeeeeaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!"


	10. Chapter 10

Whether accidentally or on purpose, the alien's sharp foreleg had penetrated Alan's calf muscle in order to climb up the rope away from the danger of falling from the now lethal height or being incinerated by Sandra's ray gun. As Doctor Helena Russell and Commander John Koenig held on to Alan's arm and tried to bring him into the Eagle the weight of the multi-legged creature threatened to either pull three humans out of the spacecraft or rip Alan's leg off.

"Auuuuuuuuugh!" yelled Alan in excruciating pain. "Shoot! Shoot!"

"I can't!" Sandra replied. The young data analyst had a quandary on her hands. The effect of killing the creature would make it release its grip on the rope and with its pincer perhaps still stuck in Alan's leg she was sure it would take Helena the Commander and Alan out of the ship. What more the amplified plasma energy effect on the alien's body might burn Alan too as he was in physical contact with it.

"You'll be killed!" Sandra explained.

"AaaahhhhhOWwwww! Help!" Alan bellowed.

"Rifle!" This came from a straining Helena. She indicated with her head and eyes, as her hands were fully occupied, towards the shoulder fired weapon on the floor of the cabin. "The Laser Rifle!"

Sandra dove for the weapon and picked it up. She braced herself against the doorway again and aimed the rifle at the creature, but hesitated. She had only been given the briefest training in the weapon and was not sure what to do…or if she should use it at all.

"This will be worse!" she complained over the engine noise.

Doctor Russell was now beside herself with agony. It felt like her arm sockets were about to pull out.

"Intensify the beam!" she clarified. "Cut it off!"

Ahhhh. Now Sandra understood what she meant. Cut the creature's leg off. Cutting beam. She reached forward and began twisting the wavelength adjustment control on the barrel of the weapon.

It was just then that a sudden jolt of turbulence caused a buffet in the ship and made Sandra lurch forward. With that she accidentally squeezed the trigger firing off the laser prematurely at an intensity and magnitude higher than wanted. The beam struck the clinging alien in dead center mass and within a matter of a half a second its body cooked, expanded and exploded all over Sandra, Alan and the side of the ship.

"Aug! Crap!" Sandra cried.

"Sorry!" came Kano's voice from the front of the ship, apologizing for the rough flight. "We're gonna level out now! Have you got Alan? Do you need help?"

"Not anymore!" replied Sandra with relief, irony, and slight contempt in her voice. She wiped the hot alien goo from out of her eyes.

With the weight of alien gone Doctor Russell and Commander Koenig had pulled Alan in with an abrupt yank, and he was now clutching at his leg on the floor, still grunting with the pain. Sandra gingerly pulled out what was left of the disintegrated alien creature's long fore-pincer from the chief astronaut's leg and chucked it out the open door. She never wanted to see anything related to those creatures again. She deactivated the door override with her commlock and watched it slide closed and seal itself.

"You can climb out now," she announced into the commlock after a deep breath. "We're ready. Ready to go."

"Roger." Tanya Alexander pulled up sharper on the control sticks, but also glanced at the commo screen and noticed how disheveled and gore splattered Sandra was. "OH Sahn-"

Kano took notice too and now realized that more had gone on back in the passenger module than he or Tanya had been able to realize while trying to keep the shot-up Eagle stable.

"Holy sm-… Sandra?" Kano inquired. "Are you okay? What happened? Were you hit? What is all-"

"No. No, it's okay," Sandra said trying to sound reassuring. She self-conciously tried to wipe her short black hair clean with her hand. "It's just…just alien bits and pieces…all over me."

"Oh…Is that all..." Kano said with a warm but still concerned smile.

"Yes," Sandra with a light laugh. She pointed upward. "Now please …if you can…go up, fast."

"No problem," Kano affirmed. "We're at 10,000 feet now and climbing." He watched Tanya pushing the main thruster throttles forward and added: "We'll be in orbit in…" Tanya gave him one finger up. "In about one minute."

"Good." Sandra acknowledged with soothed relief, as Eagle One blasted a course into the upper atmosphere.


	11. Epilog

At its fullest available thrust Eagle One lifted its nose and rocketed rapidly upwards. It burst beyond the blue stratosphere of the planet and into the familiar starlit darkness of space… on its way back to its home on the moon.

In the passenger module, Doctor Russell tended to Alan's leg. He grimaced and winced as she cleaned, disinfected, and sealed his open wound, but he did not cry out in pain…he only gritted his teeth.

"There you go, 'outback-man'," Helena announced and kidded him as she finished wrapping-up her repair job in surgical gauze.

"Oy! Thanks, Doc," he responded with a ready smile as he gingerly massaged near the wound site. "Anything for the pain?"

"Oh. I thought you liked all that," Helena replied slyly. After, carefully inserting an anesthetic shunt under the bandaging she looked at him critically. "Seriously, Alan, you must be out of your mind to take on all those aliens like that. You couldn't have quietly sneaked or even run back like the rest of us?"

"Oh, come on Helena. 'Sneaking' just isn't my style!" he quipped with a smile and feigned bravado. "Besides it's all a part of being a space hero!"

Helena rolled her eyes, but still could not help laugh. "Quite a character," she thought to herself.

Just then the central monitor of the cabin came on and with it came the wizened face of Professor Victor Bergman. He had a look of objective contemplation as he wrung his hands in subconscious empathy with the plight of the Eagle landing party.

"Ahh, John," he said nodding consolingly. "I take it your scouting run for Operation Exodus does not give us an optimistic outlook."

Koenig paused as he sat back in his seat. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. He looked down at his own numbed, very badly mangled appendage.

"Well…have you fed any data into Computer and had it crunch some projections on what our survival chances would be down there…if we could find some easier landing site?" John asked.

"Ah. Well. Actually, we did." Victor replied. "…you know…based on what we gathered from what was happening to you. And…um, it says…" Victor punched a few buttons and tore off a slip of read-out paper that Computer deposited at him. He raised his eyebrows in a sort of curious acceptance.

"Oh god. Don't say it. I know…" John groaned. Now it was time for him to roll his eyes. "'Human Decision Required.' Right?"

"Yes, John, yes," the professor nodded with more than slight amusement showing.

"Anything useful?!" Koenig growled, exhibiting his usual lack of patience with Computer's level of helpfulness.

"Ah, well, now of course I don't have our man Kano's capabilities of programming with Computer, but from what I've been able to collate from Computer's range of possibilities given…it seems you may have possibly landed between a field of combatants for domination of the resources of that planet, John."

"You're kidding." Koenig sat forward now and glared-on at the monitor display in new surprise.

"No. No. "Professor Bergman confirmed. "From what we can, detect there are signs of skirmishes all along the surface. A sort of… balance of power seems to kind of…'ring' the planet. Your landing area may have been that rare neutral piece of land. You may have violated their little s_anctity_, John."

"Uhnn," John massaged his brow in dissatisfaction. "But why _shoot_ at us? We aren't even from there! We are not a part of their wars."

"Yes…well, John, imagine Earth civilization at that age of development. Now, in the midst of a war and already armed and ready for battle… You know, John, as terrible and terrifying as they appear to you, you might also appear to them."

"Yep," the commander had to nod with understanding. "That would be pretty terrible."

"And, so I don't think they were of the mindset that you were just harmless creatures just looking to catch a break and find a home on their respective lands. I mean, frankly, John, they probably weren't likely to be all that welcoming even if they did understand all that."

Koenig nodded his head and contemplated his leg again.

"Yeah, okay. So how long do I have?"

"Well, the moon is still kind of far off…but we're travelling at a tangent to the planet's orbit. Current calculations are that the Evacuation Phase of Exodus would have to commence no later than three days, John."

"Oh." Koenig sat back a little again. He scratched at his brow. "Well…we've had shorter windows. Thank you, Victor. Hold for now." he said firmly

"Right, John." Victor replied without further question. "Hold for now…" he repeated.


	12. Mushy Ending

I couldn't resist laying on an emotional/happy ending after all the excitement and violence...

...Here's to their future...whatever it will be.

* * *

**In the command module section Kano and Tanya nursed Eagle 1 back to where it belonged; to an elevated cross shaped pad on the moon.**

**For, Tanya, Alpha's more quiet Deputy Controller who always worked more in the background of her Main Mission chief, Paul, being back in the command seat of an Eagle again was like re-familiarizing herself with a bicycle. The flight deck was laid-out somewhat differently from what she had learned on in her early days as a young Russian cosmonaut. But she had been proficiently trained and checked-out to fly Eagles, so she slid back easily into the role of commanding the spacecraft. She flipped switches, maintained a grasp on the control grips with at least one hand, and adjusted the instrumentation with relative nimbleness. To the right of her Kano tactfully coerced a greater degree of engine performance out of the on-board flight computer. The stars slid across their front windscreen, and the beautiful white moon settled in the center, right off the Eagle's nose cone.**

**"Check that pressurization is green and stable," Tanya called out softly, reading from a display checklist.**

**Kano looked up and placed his finger on a digital gauge that was on his side of the cockpit and then read the numbers that were lit in a calming LED green.**

**"Pressure is in the green and holding…check." Kano replied.**

**"Okay. Post orbital check list complete." Tanya announced efficiently in her noticeable but not heavy accent. She looked over hopefully at Kano. "Do you think there is any way he will decide to Exodus finally, David? Could there be a way to talk to them and survive down there, David? They were so hostile."**

**"Possibly," Kano replied non-committaly as he typed in data and wrote down output on a pad. "Maybe Computer can find some place down there that isn't inhabited or barely so. Maybe an island in one of their seas, or a desert somewhere. Then we could buy time to work things out…maybe."**

**"Yes? I hope so." Tanya pushed a button to give guidance control to the flight computer and released her grip on the controls. For the first time she sat back fully and relaxed her body. She loosened her control straps and gave a sigh. It had all been so much, so fast. She gave Kano a look-over again, marveling at the fact that he was still alive.**

**"By the way," Kano said looking up suddenly. "Thank you very much for saving my clumsy arse." They both laughed as much out of tension relief as for the humor in his words. David smiled and continued on more thoughtfully, "You know you were very good down there. You should go on more of their little landing parties."**

**Tanya laughed at his ironic compliment. Despite his seriousness about Computer on Alpha, Kano otherwise had an easy-going manner that often made her feel brighter when he was around. And brightness was a valuable commodity in their situation on Alpha.**

**"Spasiba…umm, 'thank you'. But, of course, you are welcome to the life saving, moya-Dava," Tanya said, shortening his name to an affectionate Russian form she used on him from time-to-time. She reached out her hand to him across the aisle. "I had to do it. You are our best computer personnel!"**

**"Ha!" Kano grinned broadly. He put down his pen and extended his hand to hers. He winced strongly from the pain at his side until the electronic anesthetic shunt adjusted for the increased output of pain signals from his nervous system. "Ow… " he said still grateful to be alive to be able to feel the pain. "Thank you…ummm I mean 'spaciba', Tanya." He relaxed and grasped her hand.**

**"Oh," Tanya clucked sympathetically at his suffering, but then smiled tenderly when she realized he was no longer hurting. "You are so welcome."**

* * *

**John regarded Helena as she helped Alan strap in for the rest of the ride back to Alpha. When she finally came and sat down next to him he asked her:**

**"So what do you think?"**

**"I think I am going to operate on you as soon as we get back," she answered**

**"That'll have to wait," he said flatly. "And, I meant, 'what do you think about Exodus'?".**

**"No, I will have to operate right away, John. It can't wait." Helena insisted ignoring his question.**

**"Doctor…" John intoned frustratedly.**

**"Commander…" Helena countered with a tone of equal intransigence.**

**The brief stand-off was broken when they both began to smile at their mutual stubbornness.**

**"Look…um, thanks for looking after me and getting me back to the Eagle, Helena," John said more softly. "I don't know how you managed that…with all that was happening. You are stronger than you look."**

**"I don't know either," Helena agreed shaking her head and joking softly. "Did you know that you are not an easy person to drag along the ground, John Koenig? I nearly had a heart attack!" They both laughed with released tension at this observation. Helena noted John's burdened expression as it gradually returned to his face. She placed a comforting hand on his rugged shoulder. "You are welcome anyway, John"**

**"This is a tough one," John sighed. "Whichever way we go…it's a tough future."**

**"Yes," Helena agreed. "But it will be okay…and I am with you one hundred percent…whatever you decide."**

* * *

**A few seats back Sandra wiped Paul's face with a cloth and watched him carefully as the medications slowly brought him back from his venom induced narcosis. He shivered slightly under a silvery emergency blanket that covered and warmed him as his mind slowly regained a level of clarity. In the haziness of his clearing vision he could blurrily make out Sandra's elfin and slightly soiled face blinking at him concernedly. Through the chemical impairment his mind formed fuzzy words that his mouth haltingly tried to speak.**

**"Nake…u…shanra." Paul managed to get out. A retarded smile curled from his lips.**

**"Oh, it's all right." Sandra said modestly while still wiping at him and keeping him from drooling all over the place. "You are welcome. But please don't do anything like that again. You had me scared half to death."**

**"Wuhf…fat?" Paul asked trying to point at the substance that still covered Sandra in parts.**

**"'That'," she explained minutely as she flattened his moustache with her wiping fingertips. "is alien chunks, Paul. You don't remember? You didn't see when that alien exploded? That alien that had Alan's leg. You didn't see me get splattered all in alien goop?"**

**After a long pause of probably not remembering, Paul tried to speak again.**

**"My mnuh-nyu,"**

**"What?" Sandra asked, squinting with incomprehension.**

**"My mnuhhhh nyooo," Paul tried again with effort, extending the slurred endings of his words.**

**Sandra smiled and covered her mouth as she laughed politely. She then blushed a little red.**

**"Ohhhhh. Okay….shhhhhh. Yes. I love you too, Paul" she whispered.**


End file.
